by Robert Metz – July 2007
Had enough of all the heat, garbage and mind-altering pollution — being spewed by our politicians every day and every hour from every level of government?
The heat is on. Get ready for more; the political meltdown is only just beginning.
Although the REAL challenges facing voters in Ontario are TAXES, HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION, ENERGY and WELFARE, candidates for all the political parties have been effectively forced — by the left — to make claims, statements and policies about the phoney issue of ‘Global Warming’, (increasingly referred to as ‘Climate Change’ just to keep the issue going in the event the earth suddenly turns cooler before their goals are achieved).
It’s all a lot of hot air, and most people know it. Unfortunately, ‘most’ people don’t bother to vote and so the VOTING majority — the left — will probably have a great deal of success at making all of our lives more inconvenient, more expensive, and less enjoyable.
The volume of newsprint and media air time devoted to the issue of Global Warming over the past several months literally dwarfs any coverage of the major issues that we can actually do anything about. During a period when my newspaper/magazine clippings on ‘Global Warming’ filled between four and five legal-size file folders, I found fewer than a half dozen articles on health care, education, etc. for the same period. (Ontario’s health care system alone absorbs 59 % of total tax income of the province from all sources, as emphasized in an October 2, 2006 Freedom Party Media Release. But who except Freedom Party cares about this?)
As a campaign of distraction, ‘Global Warming’ is the left’s dream come true.
The REAL TARGET of the left’s campaign on ‘global warming’ are industry, productivity, capitalism in general, and rationality specifically. (That Al Gore, of all people, could release a book entitled The Assault On Reason, is both an irony and a blasphemy all wrapped up in one. It also makes it clear that the LEFT understands its real objectives far more clearly than do its victims, who are either aiding and abetting them, or are reduced to pointlessly arguing about a false issue — all while the left’s real target remains entirely unguarded.)
It is not my purpose, within the confines of this particular essay, to argue all the pros and cons of the so-called ‘Global Warming’ or ‘Climate Change’ debate. I will certainly be doing so in greater detail in future columns, as I have already done on a myriad of television and radio talk shows.
But some comment has rendered itself necessary, in light of the fact that the ‘Global Warming’ issue has superceded virtually every other issue, whether municipal, provincial, federal, or international. Hard to ignore, if you know what I mean.
Contrary to what Al Gore and David Suzuki are implying (they never actually offer any hard evidence other than vague associations and their own feelings), I have yet to find ANY credible objective evidence suggesting that carbon dioxide has anything to do with climate change. The facts suggest quite a different scenario. But as with religious belief, FACTS are inconsequential to the ‘Global Warming’ debate; after all, the issue is really not even about the environment.
I am reminded of Professor Richard Hummel’s excellent essay, ‘Kyoto Or What?’ as published in Fp’s Consent #33 in 2004. This is the article I recommend if you really want to understand the SCIENCE of global climate and the role of carbon dioxide. I have yet to find any evidence or claims on either side of the debate that would negate the salient points of Professor Hummel’s presentation. But as with all science and hard core philosophy (metaphysics and epistemology), scientific principles, algebraic equations, chemical formulas, logic, and reason make for pretty dry reading, unlike the religious revival emotionalism offered by the enviro-MENTALS.
I must confess that I have taken an unrelentingly hostile stand against the ‘Global Warming’ fraud on my radio show and on other shows where I have been a guest on the subject. On Just Right, I have personally interviewed global warming ‘deniers’ (scientists, engineers) and listened intently to the true believers, whose own statements offer by far the best evidence of their folly and shortsightedness.
The REAL SECRET TO UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL CLIMATE DEBATE is to LISTEN TO, and UNDERSTAND, what the LEFT is saying on this issue.
Never mind the science. It’s not about science for the left.
When you hear an argument like ‘the science is settled on global warming’ and that to disagree with this amounts to a MORAL ‘denial’ that associates you with fascism, hatred and the like, you can be CERTAIN that the person who’s telling you this is either a FOOL or a LIAR. There are other terms I can think of, but I shall restrain myself.
In direct contrast to static belief, science is NEVER ‘settled’, which is precisely a key element of the process that validates it.
Any new discovery, principle or working theory always expands the horizons of science; to say that science is ‘settled’ on any matter is to deny the incredible material advances and progress of the past two hundred years.
But then again, all of this is irrelevant to those climbing on board the ‘Global Warming’ bandwagon. Unbelievably, that includes Stephen Harper’s federal Conservatives, while very predictably, John Tory’s provincial ‘Progressive’ Conservatives are not blindly, but purposefully climbing on board.
Perhaps a more correct term would be: the ‘Global Warming BAN wagon.’ From incandescent light bulbs to plastic grocery shopping bags, political suggestions of items to ban, restrict, control, etc. are pouring forth in a torrent of outrageously symbolic and realistically untenable prohibitions — many more harmful to the environment than what was in place before. Whether we agree or not, they want to force the rest of us to join their religion.
One would think that there might be a rational voice in the midst of all this. But no.
There are, of course, the official ‘deniers’ of ‘Global Warming’, the scientists, engineers, and researchers who have been prominently profiled in the pages of the National Post. There are the now 19,000 signatories to the Oregon Accord Against Kyoto, including some 8000 actual scientists, according to Tom Harris of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, who appeared on my radio show on May 17. And there are a number of independent minded journalists and media columnists like the Sun’s Lorrie Goldstein and the National Post’s Terence Corcoran.
But in the political arena, there are NO organized voices of rationality speaking against the ‘Global Warming’ fraud. Once again, Freedom Party is the only political party on the RIGHT side of the issue — in every sense and meaning of that word. And with frighteningly few exceptions, the group mentioned above avoids mention of Freedom Party (we know they are acutely aware of us), while futilely pinning its hopes on the parties of the statusquo to which they object.
The willingness of every political party to abandon rationality in favor of getting votes (assuming there is any rationality in the given party in the first place) is completely a phenomenon of the LEFT.
CONSERVATIVES ARE NOT RIGHT
Be clear of my meaning in this regard: Conservatives (provincial and federal) are NOT capitalists or advocates of individual freedom. They are pointed towards the LEFT every bit as much as are the NDP and Liberals. Their differences lie only in the rate at which they are running towards the left, and are irrelevant. None are pointed in the Right Direction.
Let me repeat once again the reality of the situation: Although they were all advocated by the NDP and Liberals, it was Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives who introduced INCOME TAX to Ontario in 1969, who created Ontario’s health care monopoly and banned private health care, who maintained a two-tier education monopoly, who discouraged the teaching of phonics in favor of ‘child centered’ education, who gave us rent controls, who gave us phoney Human Rights codes, who monopolized Ontario Hydro, and who now want to lead the ‘Global Warming’ ban wagon.
Let me repeat it again, because I know some of you aren’t really hearing me: It was the CONSERVATIVES who acted to bring the most harmful LEFTIST POLICIES to the Province of Ontario, while the other parties merely did the preaching. And today’s PCs are even more to the left now than in the past.
Which brings us back to the ‘Global Warming’ distraction. As with all the issues above, the left is leading the Conservatives to do its bidding on the ‘Global Warming’ issue (i.e., the continued destruction of capitalism) and Conservatives are more than willing to do that if it means staying in power. That’s why I always expect the WORST legislation to come from Conservatives, since their track record is pretty good on being the baddest of the bad. For years, federal Liberals only talked about the environment; Harper is actually ACTING on the environment (which displeases everyone on every side of the issue, which in turn explains why Liberals never act on their own ideas). If you want to force an unpopular or bad policy on the populace, just get the Conservatives to do it.
Even now, an Ontario PC private member’s Bill 228, the Gas Prices Notice Act, 2007, is being advanced by Progressive Conservative MPP Joe Tascona: it would require gasoline companies to announce their price increases three days in advance. Think about that for a minute. What would you be doing if you — and everybody else — knew that the price of gas was going up the day after tomorrow? The line ups would be outrageous and empty the gas tanks of every station as fast as they could pump them. It would be like causing a bank panic on purpose. Any kindergarten economics student would be able to see that Bill 228 is a one-way ticket to fuel rationing, high prices and panic buying on a regular basis. And this from another ‘free market’ Conservative, who is hard at work — for the NDP and Green Parties.
It’s the political tragedy of our times: Not only do those on the true right NOT have a CHOICE in the political arena, they don’t even have a VOICE in the political arena. Most are still unaware that Freedom Party is their voice and is their choice. And among those who ARE aware that Freedom Party would be their choice ‘if only you can get elected’, many consistently betray their own convictions because they are religiously clinging to a false hope (despite repeated and consistent evidence to the contrary) that somehow, somewhere, sometime, the Conservatives just might do the RIGHT thing once in a while.
It just never happens.
Thus, the so-called ‘strategic’ voters and supporters who should be supporting Freedom Party on PRINCIPLE, end up supporting causes in which they do not believe, and living with laws that handicap them and which they do not support. But a real insult added to their own injury is that, in so doing, they simultaneously end up punishing (through the misdirection of their support) individuals and groups like Freedom Party who are working hard to EARN their support on the RIGHT issues, day in and day out. Invariably, it is exactly this type of person who always says: “Yeah, I’d support you guys if I thought you could get elected.” !?!?! The circularity of this argument is dizzying.
Supporting any new venture is a risky undertaking at best, and those who brave such waters generally distinguish themselves from the herd. In matters politic, this principle becomes even more exaggerated, owing to the public nature of the venture.
I have learned over the years that it is simply not possible to adequately express my appreciation to those who courageously and steadfastly supported Freedom Party, on principle, over the party’s formative years.
Freedom Party and the work that I and others have been personally able to do in the public arena would never have been possible if not for such supporters. Freedom Party has now survived longer than many of its bravest pioneers who have passed away; I think of them often, especially when I look ahead at the challenge that still confronts all true advocates of freedom.
Because the hard part — and the most exciting part — is yet to come.
But as always, that can’t happen without the continued support of those who value the results of their investment. Many hands make light work, as they say. So whether supporters just want a VOICE or need a CHOICE, they’ll continue to get both from Freedom Party — before, during, and after elections.
I know this, because as president and founder of the party, I’m part of an executive team that exists to make certain it is so.
Fear not: the political heat of ‘Global Warming’ won’t distract us. For Freedom Party, the ‘single issue’ of freedom is the one issue that encompasses all the rest. Freedom Party and its leadership, members, and supporters put freedom first! A proper understanding of what this means (i.e., why we put freedom first) should also lead to an understanding that only in a free environment can our physical environment be protected.
Remember, the real ‘global warming’ is political, not environmental. Just hot air. And hot air dissipates. Principles are eternal.{end}
-Robert Metz Freedom Flyer #38 July 2007